US STOCKS-Futures flat as Hurricane Harvey weighs on oil, dollar

Sruthi Shankar

Published 7:41 AM ET Mon, 28 Aug 2017
Reuters

SHARES

* Futures up: Dow 2 pts, S&P 1.75 pts, Nasdaq 2 pts

Aug 28 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Monday as Tropical Storm Harvey barreled into the Texas coast, the heart of the U.S. energy sector, raising concerns about the impact of the storm on the economy and piling more pressure on the dollar, which hit 16-month lows against a basket of currencies.

* Harvey, the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, was set to dump more rain on Houston on Monday, worsening flooding that has paralyzed the country's fourth biggest city.

* Oil markets were roiled after the storm wreaked havoc along the Gulf coast over the weekend, crippling Houston and its port, and knocking out numerous refineries as well as some crude production.

* Harvey has knocked out a quarter of oil production from the Gulf of Mexico, prompting fears it could overturn years of excess U.S. oil capacity and low prices.

* U.S. crude futures, which earlier hit two-year highs, dipped more than 1 percent to $47.32 over concerns that refinery shutdowns could reduce demand for American crude.

* The dollar index fell to as low as 92.372, its weakest since early May 2016, before recovering a little to trade down 0.33 percent at around 92.438. The currency has been under pressure after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen stayed silent on monetary policy in a much-anticipated speech on Friday.

* U.S. economic growth more than halved in the quarter after Hurricane Katrina mauled Louisiana in August 2005.

* Harvey is set to curtail near-record U.S. oil production for several weeks, with the impact expected to reverberate throughout the country and across international energy markets.

* U.S. stocks rose slightly on Friday, snapping a two-week streak of losses for the Dow and the S&P, after Yellen's speech at the annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming did not comment on the path of interest rate hikes for the central bank.

* Among stocks, onshore producers Marathon Oil and EOG Resources were down about 1 percent. Shares of oil majors Exxon and Chevron were little changed.

* Shares of Kite Pharmaceuticals were up 16.5 percent in premarket trading after Gilead Sciences Inc agreed to buy the immunotherapy developer in an all-cash deal valued at $11.9 billion. Shares of Gilead gained 2.7 percent.